Dr. Weeks’ Comment: We all need protein, not too much, just enough and of excellent organic quality, but the source is a critical variable too! Dairy is delicious but bad for you (see www.notmilk.com and I Scream You Scream) but what about a dairy derivative: the popular WHEY PROTEIN?
In a word: “NOPE” Say no whey to whey. Read what what my friend,the Notmilkman, Robert Cohen has to say about whey.
Robert Cohen, author of: MILK A-Z
(201-871-5871)
Executive Director (notmilkman@notmilk.com)
Dairy Education Board
http://www.notmilk.com
Say NO WAY! to WHEY!
After fat and casein are removed from milk, dairy processors are left with whey protein. Whey is composed of bovine blood proteins. Serum albumen. Lactalbumen. Dead white blood cells. Hormonal residues including estrogen and progesterone.
The body’s reaction to a foreign protein is to destroy that antigen-like invader with an antibody. For those individuals unfortunate enough to possess a genetic pre-disposition to such an event, the antibody then turns upon one’s own cells. That is what is known as an auto-immune response.
In the case of diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), the body’s response to whey proteins is to attack the outer membrane protecting nerve cells, or the myelin sheath.
It has long been established that early exposure to bovine proteins is a trigger for insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Researchers have made that same milk consumption connection to MS. The July 30, 1992 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine first reported the diabetes autoimmune response milk connection:
“Patients with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus produce antibodies to cow milk proteins that participate in the development of islet dysfunction… Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that an active response in patients with IDDM (to the bovine protein) is a feature of the auto-immune response.”
On December 14, 1996, The Lancet revealed:
“Cow’s milk proteins are unique in one respect: in industrialized countries they are the first foreign proteins entering the infant gut, since most formulations for babies are cow milk-based. The first pilot stage of our IDD prevention study found that oral exposure to dairy milk proteins in infancy resulted in both cellular and immune response…this suggests the possible importance of the gut immune system to the pathogenesis of IDD.”
THE MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS/MILK CONNECTION
The April 1, 2001 issue of the Journal of Immunology contained a study linking MS to milk consumption.
Michael Dosch, M.D., and his team of researchers determined that multiple sclerosis and type I (juvenile) diabetes mellitus are far more closely linked than previously thought. Dosch attributes exposure to cow milk protein as a risk factor in the development of both diseases for people who are genetically susceptible. According to Dosch:
“We found that immunologically, type I diabetes and multiple sclerosis are almost the same – in a test tube you can barely tell the two diseases apart. We found that the autoimmunity was not specific to the organ system affected by the disease. Previously it was thought that in MS autoimmunity would develop in the central nervous system, and in diabetes it would only be found in the pancreas. We found that both tissues are targeted in each disease.”
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
Multiple sclerosis affects approximately 300,000 Americans. Two-thirds of those diagnosed with MS are women. Most researchers believe that MS is an autoimmune disease. Auto means “self.”
WHO DOES NOT GET MS?
It is interesting to note that Eskimos and Bantus (50 million individuals living in East Africa) rarely get MS. Neither do those native North and South American Indian or Asian populations who consume no cow’s milk or dairy products.
WHO GETS MS?
The British medical journal Lancet reported that dairy-rich diets filled have been closely linked to the development of MS. (The Lancet 1974;2:1061)
A study published in the journal Neuroepidemiology revealed an association between eating dairy foods and an increased prevalence of MS. (Neuroepidemiology 1992;11:304Â12.)
MS researcher, Luther Lindner, M.D., a pathologist at Texas
A & M University College of Medicine, wrote:
“It might be prudent to limit the intake of milk and milk products.”
Women are targeted by dairy industry scare tactics that offer misinformation regarding osteoporosis. Two-thirds of MS victims are women. As milk and cheese consumption increase along population lines, so too does an epidemic number of MS cases. The numbers add up. The clues add up.
The science supports epidemiological studies. Got diabetes? Got MS? The milk connection has been established.
Whey protein? Say no way!